Cable network devotes airtime to mag-o-mercials

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management,  August 1, 1997  by Andrew Burns

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Move over Psychic Hotline. Magazines are cutting into infomercial turf.

This fall, Irvine, California-based Access Television Network, purveyor of "direct response cable programming" (otherwise known as infomercials), is launching a channel dedicated to magazine marketing. Called Access Magazine, the new avenue will provide publishers with time slots aimed at helping them to grow circulation.

Rick Gibson, vice president of programming at the three-and-a-half-year-old company, says the venue is ideal for magazines. "The medium is extremely conducive to publishers who need volume and reach," he says. "It's a video direct-mail network that has already been proven successful" with other programming, such as Access' Psychic Hotline, and a program on buying real estate with no money down.

Each viewing hour will be broken into four 15-minute "pods," with each pod featuring four titles in two-and-a-half-minute segments. Ideally, he says, a single publisher will purchase the entire pod. However, if a publisher has fewer than four titles, the time will be shared with noncompetitors.

The feed will launch September 1 in two test markets, San Diego and Hartford, Connecticut, with an initial reach of 425,000 homes. After two months, says Gibson, it will expand to a nationwide audience of between five and 10 million homes. During the test phase, each "pod" will run 448 times (eight times per day).

Although Gibson would not release client names or pricing information, he says many agreements are pending and the list of interested publishers, and those in the test market phase, range from "the largest publishers to some with only one publication."

Gibson says Access Magazine is particularly suited to smaller magazines. "There's something to be said for buying specific space and time slots," he acknowledges, "but it's too expensive for most publishers."

To keep costs in check, Access provides an economical still-frame format that bypasses the high cost of video production. Each magazine's presentation will consist of 15 10-second frames similar to those found on Web pages. The screen will be segmented into three areas, providing opportunities for feature article previews, a table of contents, a premium offer, and "a call to action."

Jill Taffet of Taffet-design, Inc., who created the looks for E! The Entertainment Network and Nick at Nite's TVLand, is working on the format. "She's among the premier TV designers," Gibson says, "This format will allow for different creative concepts to be used by magazines and by the network."

Among those ideas, Gibson says, are magazine trivia contests, much like those in movie theaters that precede a feature film. "It's definitely not going to be a series of sales pitches. We're interested in attracting publishers who have complementary long-form programming [in any format] that could be incorporated. We're flexible in terms of creativity, about what publishers want to do with their time."

A blip on the screen

Stuart Jordan, executive vice president of Westport, Connecticut-based Circulation Specialists, Inc., thinks that television has definite advantages in terms of selling subscriptions. "Television has a proven track record of generating circulation for publications," he observes. "People don't like to buy products over the Web, but they have no problem making purchases from television." Still, Jordan feels Access has a significant hurdle. "The biggest issue is cost per order," he says. "Can they deliver an effective cost per order for the publishers?"

Gibson says that is the network's primary objective and the pricing and structure are evolving to meet publishers' demands. "It's critical to our success that we provide an extremely profitable avenue for publishers. The profits must exceed those of direct-mail campaigns."

COPYRIGHT 1997 Copyright by Media Central Inc., A PRIMEDIA Company. All rights reserved.
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